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Another Spectacular $50 Billion No Nukes Victory for the Forces of Solartopia

By Harvey Wasserman
February 12, 2009

For the third straight year, against all odds, a national grassroots No Nukes campaign has stripped out of the federal budget a proposed $50 billion boondoggle for new atomic
reactors.

The victory gives a giant boost to solar, wind, efficiency, mass transit and other Solartopian technologies that can solve global warming, sustain real economic growth and bring us a truly green-powered Earth.

This latest victory came Wednesday, February 11, as a top-level Congressional conference committee ironed out the last details of the Obama stimulus package. The loan guarantee scam was slipped into the Senate version by Republican Bob Bennett (R-UT) in cooperation with Democrat Tom Carper (D-DE). The loan guarantees would have backed a Department of Energy program supporting new reactor construction, despite a report from the Government Accountability Office warning that such projects would bankrupt more than half the utilities that might undertake them.

A national grassroots campaign involving virtually all major environmental organizations dealing with energy once again underscored the overwhelming green opposition to atomic power. The Nuclear Information & Resource Service, Beyond Nuclear, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Environment America, NukeFree.org, Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, IEER, Center for American Progress, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Friends of the Earth, Sierra Club, Rainforest Action, Rainforest International and more than 200 national and local environmental and taxpayer organizations joined in opposition to the guarantees.

It is not yet clear but seems likely key impetus on the Hill may have come from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NM) and House committee chairs Henry Waxman (D-CA), David Obey (D-WI) and Ed Markey (D-MA), among others. Gestures of thanks are being widely encouraged.

A similar victory was won in the fall of 2007 when a $50 billion loan guarantee was slipped into the national energy bill by then-Senator Pete Domenici (R-NM). The campaign prompted a song from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Ben Harper and Keb Mo posted at www.nukefree.org. With the help of Moveon.org, it delivered more than 120,000 signatures to Congress in less than three months.

In 2008 the industry was forced to withdraw a blank check loan guarantee program when the banking system collapsed.

This year’s attempt came in the dead of night, with virtually no public knowledge. Only Amy Goodman’s DEMOCRACY NOW! Gave it national television coverage, while Richard Greene’s CLOUT on Air America and the Peter B. Collins show featured national radio play.

No significant story about the plan appeared in the New York Times, USA Today or other major media outside Washington.

The No Nukes victory came within hours of the passing of Guy Chichester, a legendary founder of the Clamshell Alliance and National Green Party. Chichester helped lead the mass demonstrations at the Seabrook (NH) nuclear site that thrust the atomic power issue into the global limelight. In the 1977 LAST RESORT (www.gmpfilms.com) Guy became one of the first to speak on film about a green-powered Earth, arguing that the money being squandered on Seabrook should instead go to renewable energy which would create thousands of jobs and save the planet. As a green pioneer, Chichester’s innumerable—often humor-filled—non-violent arrests were matched only by his great heart and loving spirit.

Ironically, this latest push for reactor subsidies coincides with what may be a death blow to the proposed Yucca Mountain radioactive waste dump. Opposed by both Reid and President Obama, the multi-billion-dollar project may be defunded. After a half-century, the US has no high level nuke waste repository, and none planned.

No one expects an end to the industry’s relentless assault on the taxpayer trough. New reactor cost estimates have tripled since 2007 and are likely to at least double again. Michael Mariotte of NIRS says pro-nukers now want atomic energy labeled “green” in a national renewable energy standard. As Kevin Kamps of Beyond Nuclear points out,
additional attempts to get money are likely to follow in upcoming debate on an Energy Bill and other legislation.

But as renewables and efficiency and the movement supporting them surge ahead, the Solartopian vision of a truly green planet, free of fossil/nuke power, becomes ever more
real.

Harvey Wasserman’s SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, is at www.harveywasserman.com. He edits the NukeFree.org web site, and is senior editor of www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Why is that $50 billion radioactive antique toilet still in the stimulus
bill?

Harvey Wasserman
February 10, 2009

The infamous $50 billion nuke power loan guarantee package meant to use your money to
build new nuke reactors has gone missing from saturation media coverage of Obama’s
Stimulus Package. But it’s still in the Senate version of the bill, it could be voted on this
week, and it could kill us all.

Like that $30,000 antique toilet that disappeared into the banking bailout, the corporate
media carries not a word about this gargantuan handout to the dying reactor industry. All
the hype about a “nuclear renaissance” will come to naught without this massive taxpayer
handout. But if it goes through, the landscape could be pock marked with lethal new nukes.

We have days—maybe hours—to stop it. While aid programs to the states, for education
and the truly needy are slashed, this gargantuan boondoggle is poised to sail through with
virtually no public knowledge.

The loan guarantee package was slipped into the Senate version of the Stimulus Bill by
Senator Robert Bennet (R-UT) who proceeded to vote against the overall package. It is not
currently in the House version.

As the two bills are reconciled, armies of radioactive lobbyists will be marching through the
Halls of Congress. They know Wall Street will never pay for new nukes, so that leaves…you
and me!

The estimated price of building new reactors has nearly tripled since the beginning of
2007. It is virtually certain to at least double again before any new nuke could come on line,
which could not happen in less than a decade.

Reactors built from the 1960s to now came on line an average of 200% and more over
budget. A French-based reactor construction project in Finland has soared more than $2
billion over budget and is more than two years behind schedule. The Government
Accountability Project warns that at least half those who build new reactors are likely to
plunge into bankruptcy. To this day the industry cannot get private insurance to cover the
full potential liability of a reactor catastrophe.

But Bennett’s maneuver, supported by Senator Tom Carper (D-DE) would divert billions
away from renewables and efficiency, and into these failed terror targets.

Calls and letters are desperately needed to the Congressional leadership—NOW!— to flush
this horrific boondoggle out of the stimulus package. With White House pressure mounting
to get it passed this week, every minute counts.

Numerous major national environmental organizations offer websites from which to sign
on and send letters, including www.nirs.org , www.beyondnuclear.org and
www.nukefree.org. The Congressional phone line is 202-224-3121 or (toll free) 800-962-
3524.

Do not hesitate: the melt-down you prevent could otherwise kill you; the money redirected
to green alternatives could save our planet…and our economy.

Harvey Wasserman’s SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, is at www.harveywasserman.com. He edits the NukeFree.org web site, and is senior editor of www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

A $50 Billion Nuke Power Bomb is Dropping Toward Obama’s Stimulus

by Harvey Wasserman
January 31, 2009

The desperate, dangerous nuclear power industry has dropped a $50 billion stealth bomb meant to irradiate the Obama Stimulus Package.

It comes in the form of a mega-loan guarantee package that would build new reactors Wall Street wouldn’t finance even when it had cash. It will take a healthy dose of citizen action to stop it, so start calling your Senators now.

The vaguely worded bailout-in-advance provision was snuck through the Senate Appropriations Committee in the deep night of January 27. It would provide $50 billion in loan guarantees for “eligible technologies” that would technically include renewable sources and electric transmission. But the handout is clearly directed at nukes and “clean coal.”

The Stimulus Package is explicitly meant to create jobs within the next two years. But according to sources at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no new reactors could be licensed for construction within that time. Nor could any new coal plants. And thus the funds in this rider are to “remain available until committed.” That means their “stimulus” might not go into effect for many years.

But the nuclear industry does have the ability to spend large sums of money on “site preparation” and other busy work prior to being licensed. Though the guarantees could technically be used for truly green sources such as wind and solar, the provision’s backers, including Senators Robert Bennett (R-UT) and Thomas Carper (D-DE), have made it clear that this money is meant to go for new reactor construction.

In late 2007, nuclear power’s Congressional Godfather, then-Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), stuck a similar $50 billion loan guarantee package into that year’s energy bill. A grassroots uprising, joined by virtually all national environmental organizations, helped defeat the package. Among other things, the fight inspired a music video from Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash, Keb Mo and Ben Harper (www.nukefree.org).

In late 2008 the industry came back again with a blank check package that went down in flames along with the stock market.

Still unable to get private financing, the industry is back yet again. In the interim, the projected cost of building new reactors has soared to more than $10 billion each, and continues to climb steadily. Many of the previous generation of reactors came in hugely over budget. According to the Nuclear Information & Resource Service, one DOE study places the overall average overruns at 207%. But reactor projects such as Seabrook, in New Hampshire, New York’s Shoreham, Pennsylvania’s Beaver Valley, California’s Diablo Canyon, and many others, far exceeded that.

The Congressional Budget Office now predicts that half the nuclear utilities using such a loan program will go into default. Some $18.5 billion in loan guarantees has already been approved, apparently for such use. But its legality is being hotly disputed, and the money has not been distributed by the Department of Energy.

Washington insiders believe this latest attempt at a pre-arranged bailout has again come from Domenici, who has stayed in Washington to lobby for his radioactive benefactors after apparently retiring from the Senate in January.

This guarantee package was not part of the Stimulus Package that passed the House. Its secretive, late night inclusion on the Senate side is reminiscent of how former Vice President Dick Cheney did business for the fossil/nuclear corporations that funded much of the Bush Administration. The reappearance of this kind of back door dealing has not been well received, especially in the House.

Numerous national groups, including the Nuclear Information & Resource Servic (www.nirs.org) are providing sign-ins for sending e-mails to the Senate. They also urge that you call your Senator at 202-224-3121.

Time is fast slipping by for the nuke power industry. As the popularity of renewables and efficiency escalates, the most obvious source of new jobs and prosperity has become truly green technologies. Atomic power has long since been priced out of the market. Only massive federal and ratepayer subsidies could bring it back, to the direct detriment of the revolution in renewables.

Defeating this latest money grab will help drive another nail in the coffin of the 20th century’s most expensive failed technology. It is an essential step toward a truly greenpowered future.

Harvey Wasserman’s SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, is at www.harveywasserman.com. He edits the NukeFree.org web site, and is senior editor of www.freepress.org, where this article first appeared.

Guacamole Fund 2009 Events – Bonnie Raitt Concerts

Benefiting safe energy organizations working toward a non-nuclear future

Texas Tour Dates:

• May 10, Austin, Texas – On Sale Now
• May 12, San Antonio, Texas – On Sale Now
• May 14, Houston, Texas – On Sale Now

Texas tour dates benefit Nuke Free Texas and SEED Coaliltion.

• www.nukefreetexas.org
• www.seedcoalition.org

Purchase Benefit Tickets Now.

60 Day Clock For Nuclear Opponents Starts Ticking;
Luminant Moves Forward Toward Expansion of Comanche Peak Nuclear Plant
Reactor Design Not Ready for Primetime

For Immediate Release
February 5, 2009

Contacts:
Karen Hadden, Director, SEED Coalition 512-797-8481
Tom “Smitty” Smith, Director, Public Citizen’s Texas Office 512-797-8468

Download press release in pdf format for printing.

AUSTIN, TX The NRC posted notice today on the federal register of the application of Luminant to build two reactors at the Comanche Peak nuclear plant site, southwest of Fort Worth. Citizens now have only 60 days to prepare and present their legal case in opposition.

The reactor design (US-APWR) has not been approved by the NRC and it has never been built anywhere in the world. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. submitted the US-Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (US-APWR) for design certification on December 31, 2007, but the review will take the NRC several years and is not scheduled to be completed until 2011.

“This fast-tracked combined construction and operating license process was rationalized based on the assumption that new reactors would only use pre-certified designs, but the Comanche Peak reactor design is not approved yet. Not only does this put a huge burden on the public to quickly learn what’s happening and become involved within only 60 days, but it also puts pressure on the NRC to rubberstamp designs that should have extra scrutiny,” said Smith.

“The streamlined process is designed to cut citizens out and limit public involvement in the licensing of two reactors that could cost $22 billion before cost overruns,” said Karen Hadden, executive director of the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Coalition. “It makes the fast-tracking of TXU’s coal plants in Texas look slow.”

Comanche Peak Unit One ran ten times over budget and was years late coming online. An untested reactor design increases the likelihood of similar problems occurring again and soaring rate hikes that would result.

“If safety was a real concern, the three processes all occurring simultaneously would be taken one at a time. This rush increases risks of safety oversight and problems from faulty design and construction” said Hadden. “Reactor designs should be analyzed first, and if and when the NRC deems them adequate, a construction license application should be allowed. If the plant has no major construction flaws after completion, then the operating license should be decided.”

This federal notice posting comes as Congress debates whether to give more subsidies to the nuclear industry in the stimulus bill. The US Senate included in its economic stimulus package a handout of $50 billion to the nuclear industry, subsidies in the form of federal loan guarantees. The House did not include these handouts which would “bail in” a fifty year old industry that still can’t stand on its own, remaining dependent on federal subsidies because investors are wary of the huge liability and risks.

The NRC today issued a Federal Register notice regarding the public’s opportunity to request participation in the hearing regarding the Comanche Peak COL. The deadline for filing a request to participate is April 6. Citizens must develop their contentions during this extremely short time period, even though major factors could change, including the design of the reactors.

The notice is online at http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-2455.pdf

The notice is entitled “Luminant Generation Company LLC; Application for the Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant Units 3 and 4; Notice of Order, Hearing, and Opportunity to Petition for Leave to Intervene.” This federal register notice was published as Volume 74, pages 6177-6180.

It posting will also be online at www.NukeFreeTexas.org, where a series of articles detailing the history of the existing Comanche Peak reactors is available.

Comanche Peak Federal Register Notice posting. 2/5/09

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